Beautiful afternoon, ugly moment

We were walking one of our several routes this afternoon. “Uh-oh,” I said to Elaine.

Far down the street, a house now displayed a large sign. It went up only after the election — that seemed odd. The homeowner, an old guy, was walking out to the middle of the street and pointing to his sign. He must have spotted us and remembered us from the days before the 2020 election, when we gave a thumbs-down to a previous sign every time we walked past his house.

As we neared, he walked toward us, pointing to his sign and yelling about how they won. I said some things about the character of his hero. Elaine said some things too. “Bullshit,” he said. I then asked him, “Would you want your daughter to marry him?” No answer. I asked him three times. He said that I must have trouble speaking — he couldn’t understand me.

Post-walk, Elaine refined my question into un esprit de l’escalier, or maybe un esprit de la rue: “Would you leave your pretty granddaughter in a room alone with him?”

I’m now saving that question for possible future use. And if the reply is something along the lines of He may not be a good husband but I’m choosing a president, the next question would be how someone unwilling to honor a promise to a partner can be trusted to honor an oath to the U.S. Constitution.

Or maybe we should just send pizzas.

[Putting up a sign only after your guy wins is a pretty chickenshit move, is it not?]